#we are blessed to have such a masterpiece and quote each episode

[dllamarama]

solid writing for tonight's episode as well. easily one of the well written kdrama this year. also, personally the most heartfelt saranghae i have heard in kdrama for this year. when FL or ML said saranghae, there is always an obvious build up for that. tonight's episode saranghae is the most dramatic and thus easily my favourite. sa eon's saranghae was after a new wedding vows that mimics his in the first episode. hee joo's saranghae was after her promised to protect him this time. hee joo is doing all the things i would have ever wanted from kdrama this year.

one too many times we didn’t get the FL that can take action to protect her broody masculine man. all we want is a woman who is ready to protect, sacrifice and love the man who had always love her in silence.

that man arrange his own marriage and scheming without anyone's knowledge just to protect her from marrying an asshole. kept her hidden so that when he disappeared, she would still be able to live freely. accept her for who she was and will be.

and hee joo reciprocate his love with the same if not more than what she had received from him. she never backs down whenever there is a reason for her to fight for her husband. it's so satisfying that i had nothing to complaint about this whole series.

[wintaejk]

Jungkook’s FIC REC | OS 2

I had too many links on the other post. Here is the second part of my Jungkook’s fic rec but with others themes.

Again, all those fictions belong to the amazing authors who wrote them, not me. I want to thank them once more. 

(f) = fluff

(a) = angst

(m) = mature

magical au

— Trick or Treat: Howling for You (F) (M) — by @fortunexkookie​

The way your Little Red Riding Hood costume lured over a fuckboy in a half-assed werewolf costume was a little cliche, but god damn was he beautiful. He promised he had plenty of big things to show you, and you took him up on the offer, not realizing that you might’ve bitten off more than you could chew.

werewolf au | established relationship | +14k

— rottenfolk (M) — by @junqkook​

a look was as hazardous as chemicals, a kiss as perilous as poison; his eyes and lips felt akin to a cure, but he was purely venom.

faerie au | royalty au | +13k

Commentary - If there’s only one one-shot I could recommend you to read of all tumblr, it would probably be this one. For me, it is rare to acheive such a level of mastery in fantasy fictions. Writing is already complicated, but when you have to place the readers in an unknown universe, it is even harder.                         However, the real brilliance of this story is the end. Because the end is supposed to satiate the reader in a way or another, it is supposed to offer what all the reader craved: a sort of closure. But here we all are, waiting for a sequel, because this story will make you want a next episode. And that is the brilliance, because you will surely never forget a story with that kind of power.                         So those are some of the reasons why this fiction is for me a mix of art, smartness and excellence ; and also why you would be missing something huge by not reading it.

— overdrive (M) — by @junqkook​

you thought meeting jungkook was just a coincidence, but the universe didn’t deal in coincidences.

vampire au | soulmate au | enemies to lovers | +13k

— Crescent Bound - Jungkook (F) (M) — by @parkhabits​

A pact bound by the moon. A secret kept only amongst themselves. Each of them experiencing their own cycles of heat.

werewolf au | friends to lovers | +12k

— Room 109 (M) — by @lavishedinjimin​

Having Jungkook as your apartment buddy was a lot to get used to. But with one early day, your heat comes up much stronger than usual, and you were desperate for an alpha’s touch.

werewolf au | roommate au | alpha!jungkook | +6k

— after dark (M) — by @seokoloqy​

Jungkook has served the royal family for generations, seen them live and die countless times. When it comes to you, he can’t watch you wither away too, but your lust for one another makes it harder and harder to stay apart.

vampire au | royalty au | knight!jungkook | +8k

— Life’s Blood (F) (A) (M) — by @littlenoona​

You produce blood cells at an increased rate when blood is lost, effectively, you cannot bleed out. This ability has served you well so far, even gaining you a rare friend, and you’ve made it your source of income, but it also has its downsides, one of which you’ve managed to avoid successfully, until now.

vampire au | +13k

— you come in waves (A) (M) — by @angelguk​

if jeongguk had a choice, he would destroy the sun. it’s not like he needed it for warmth due to his werewolf abilities making him a scorching radiator. it would also help his heart. because you look delectable in that stupid bikini.

werewolf au | friends to lovers au | 4k

— tell me your secrets (i’m all ears) (F) — by @jinpire​

You’re not afraid of Jeon Jeongguk. Even if he’s probably some kind of bear or giant cat shifter, and just a hint of his irritation had your instincts vibrating beneath your skin like a live wire. Your thumb brushed over the plastic dome of mini-Levi’s head, taking comfort in the cartoon scowl and dead eyes, the tiny grey sticks of his 3DM gear. Small could be pretty fucking powerful too.

shifter au | college au | bunny!kook | +6k

drabbles: nooks and naps - foxie moxie (don’t pull my tail) - look before you leap  - fluffles and kerfuffles

— Pomegranate Seeds (M) — by @taetaebaepsae​

Jungkook thinks he’s found the perfect new roommate, but little doesn’t he know you’re just aching to corrupt him.

demon au | roommate au | virgin!jungkook | +4k

other themes

— Every Kind of Way (F) (M) — by @taehyungforreal​

{Three little vignettes, three completely different experiences, same perfectly wonderful boyfriend JK.}

strangers to lovers  | established relationship  | +14k

Commentary - I remember when this fiction was posted. I read the teaser a few days before, and I was waiting for it. I remember the exact date of the release of this story, and let me tell you it never happens to me. But this is how much I liked this story. This masterpiece.                         This fiction is 95% made of smut. This is a warning if you don’t like that. However, what I like about Ashley’s works is that smut is not only smut (okay, sometimes it’s just pure filth but whatever). It’s not the first time I’ve read a piece of work of her and that I’ve been so thankful of reading her. Because the stories she writes are realistic. Sex is not always perfect. Sex is not always like in porn. Sex can be embarrassing. And this is why I love what Ashley writes, because she always have that realistic point of view on life. And sometimes it’s also nice to not turn everything into porn.                          What is very likeable - I said likeable? I meant loveable, sorry - about that story is also the three different stages of the relation of Jk and reader. This is also something I like about her writings. Life evolves, relationships evolve, and so does sex. So in this story, you will experience three different Jungkook. And it’s three reasons why you should read this fiction, three reasons why you will probably love it.                          One thing is sure, this chef-d’oeuvre will leave you wondering if your eyes have been burnt by the smuttiness or blessed by all the talent of this writer.

— tattooed two (ft. kth) (F) (M) — by @httpjeon​

your boyfriend’s best friend joins you for a night you’ll never forget.

tattoo artist au | established relationship  | poly au  | +8k

— Inkling (A) (M) — by @gguksgalaxy​

Jungkook is your brother’s boyfriend’s co-worker, they own a tattoo and piercing parlour. In other words, he’s tall, gorgeous, has his passion literally etched into his skin, looks incredibly good in a man-bun, and is semi-unattainable for you. Why? Well…you’re not entirely sure but him ditching right after a very heated make-out session sure isn’t a good sign. His extremely poor mood the next week sure isn’t either, but the only way to fix it is to face the beast head-on. Right?

tattoo artist au  | +17k

— Freak-quency (M) — by @taehyungforreal​

His eyes sparkle and he fights back a smile when he asks you why. “Is it because I didn’t give you something else to swallow like I said I would,” he questions, halfway through a much less subtle adjustment of his growing erection. Yoongi was right, he wants to be in trouble.

rockstar au  | established relationship  | +8k

— Boots (M) —

3000+ words of Ashley kinking on Jungkook’s boot. That’s it.

rockstar au  | established relationship  | part of Freak-quency  | +3k

— Heartbreaker with a Heart of Gold (A) (M) — by @filmflowersbangtan​

It was around this time almost three years ago when Jungkook moved to LA after his band got signed to a famous record label. He told you that he’d keep in contact with you. That he’d visit as much as he could. That he loved you. But about a month after leaving, he stopped texting and calling as much. And then a mere week after the band’s first EP dropped, Burning Rabbit was a sensation.

rocksatr au | ex lovers  | +3k

— Brother’s best friend (M) — by @lavishedinjimin​

In which Y/n owns a smut blog dedicated to her crush and brother’s best friend, jungkook. it was all fun and games until he finds out about it and acts it out with you.

brother’s best friend!jungkook  | +5k

— Sugarplum Elegy (F) (A) (M) — by @bymoonchild​

You know no bounds nor depth with Jungkook. While your fuck buddy loves sleeping in your bed and doing laundry for you with his favourite fabric softener, you are in love with a mysterious honeyed, velvety voice on Soundcloud. All’s fine, until you find out that the voice that metaphors your heart to a sweet sugarplum melody actually belongs to the boy who has been taking up a special spot in your bed and in your heart, strumming at your heartstrings all this while.

friends with benefits  | college au  | idiots to lovers | +17k

— The Kids Aren’t Alright (F) (A) (M) — by @sketchguk​

Sneaking around with Jeongguk during your Christian retreat is complicated when you’re both dedicated to your jobs as co-youth group counselors at your father’s ministry.

friends with benefits  | pastor’s kid!reader  | +10k

— Gym (F) (M) — by @hobiwonder​

Jungkook has a crush on you and has been watching you work out at his gym. One day you finally confront his obvious crush.

business woman!reader  | fratboy!jungkook  | older reader | +8k

— Gravity Check (M) — by @gimmesumsuga​

The one where Jungkook is your oh-so-handsome climbing instructor.

climbing instructors!jungkook  | strangers to lovers  | 14k

— The Monogamy Monologues (F) (M) — by @kpopfanfictrash​

The year? Some point after college. The occasion? Namjoon is getting married and the Rich Man’s Crochet Club has convened once again. Somewhere between the drinks and the laughter, everyone has the same realization: Jungkook has never been in a serious relationship. In the name of all that is holy (Overwatch and booze), the club’s mission is revived. Now though, their goal is much more perilous. Now, they aim to find Jeon Jungkook a girlfriend. (Part of The Rich Man’s Crochet Club series)

fuckboy!jungkook  | wedding planner!reader  | strangers to lovers  | +42k

— The Virgin Volume (F) (A) (M) —

This fic exists in the RMCC universe. It takes place before RMCC and is the story of how Jungkook lost his virginity. To quote Seokjin/Namjoon: “What Jungkook doesn’t know won’t hurt him and – let’s be honest – his story is hilarious. One pump,” Seokjin laughs, sounding like a hyena. “One pump and he’s done.” // Ducking his head, Namjoon tries not to smile. “It was a rookie mistake,” he protests, defending their friend. “Jungkook was overexcited and couldn’t control himself. He got better.”

college au  | friends to lovers  | prequel to TMM  | +6k

— everlasting (A — by @kimvvantae​

being able to love the same person forever is a blessing given from the heavens. to you, however, eternity has become a curse.

reincarnation au  | 18k

— Performances (M) — by @littlenoona​

The same handsome guy has been appearing at your performances and you become more and more interested in who he is - now you’re dancing only for him, despite a hall full of people.

strangers to lovers  | professional dancer!reader  | +6k

— Matching Hearts (F) (A) — by @gukwluv​

a drunk call to your ex boyfriend leads to a night of fun adventures that make you wonder why you even split in the first place.

exes au | +3k

— locker room talk (M) — by @minnpd​

You end up having a rather heated talk with Jeon Jungkook in the locker room when he announces he has been chosen for the audition you both participated to.

dancer au | enemies to lovers | fuckboy!jungkook | +5k

— not quite lovers (M) — by @junqkook​

hiring jeon jungkook as your personal assistant happens to have more than one perk.

workplace au | friends with benefits | ceo!reader | +15k

— By Its Cover (M) — by @gimmesumsuga​

The one where Jungkook makes a very bad first impression.

workplace au | enemies to lovers | 21k

— Mind in the Gutter (F) (M) — by @kpopfanfictrash​

Starting over is never fun. Especially not when you decide to take the phrase fully to heart; new job, new city, new coworkers and new relationships. When you are dragged to a happy hour by your new co-worker, Taehyung, you end up sitting beside a (very) cute, (very) shy IT worker named Jungkook. Several drinks later, he mentions he is in a professional bowling league with his friends and you rather enthusiastically invite yourself along. As time passes and you begin to grow closer, you still find it impossible to read Jungkook. Working in the same company and seeing each other so often, it is only so long before one of you snaps. But who?

workplace au | bowling au | strangers to friends to lovers | +18k

[douxreviews]

Legends of Tomorrow - ‘Terms of Service’ Review

"The power is in the Palm(er) of your hands."

Is it rude to point out that the Emperor has no clothes, if you point out at the same time that the Emperor is super ripped and has been clearly doing a lot of cardio?

Because.... Damn, Emperor. You got it going on.

Which is, of course, my frivolous and subtextually homoerotic way of saying that there's an embarrassment of riches in this episode when it comes to things to like, but they all kind of rely on some serious glossing over of problem spots.

The problem in a nutshell can be boiled down to one thing. The basic opening foundation for this episode doesn't match at all with where things were left at the end of the previous one. I'm tempted to assume that I'd missed an entire episode worth of plot development, except that I know perfectly well that I didn't. It's almost as if the writers room broke a 17 episode series of stories and then just completely excised one of them when they found out they were only getting 16 to air.

For the love of God, CW, please start giving Legends a full boat of 22 episodes. It's getting embarrassing.

OK, so here's what I mean. A not insignificant portion of the plot development tonight entirely relies on the fairy godmother currently being under Gary's control. That's actually an inspired plot development, and his relationship both with Tabitha and with the next inheritor of the fairy godmother mantle were pure gold as far as both comedy and plot development goes.

The problem is, when exactly did Fairy Godmother bond herself to Gary? He calls to her at the end of the previous episode and she saves him from Mona as if their relationship was an established thing, but unless I missed something significant completely, that was not a thing they'd ever set up.

I'll be fair. I drink a lot of wine. If I missed something that explains this, please do let me know in the comments.

Additionally, at the end of 'Nip/Stuck,' Mona ate off Gary's evil nipple – not a sentence you get to type every day – and Gary was rushed out of the Time Bureau with unconscious Mona, Tabitha, and Neron in Ray's body. The implication strongly was that Gary's nipple was behind the mass hypnosis of the Bureau, and now that it had been destroyed the bureau was saved. Left behind to witness the bad guys escape was Nora, Ava, and Sara.

This week we open with the bad guys still in possession of the Bureau, only now it's due to Gary's influence over the fairy godmother rather than his fancy hypnotic nipple. Not only do we see no evidence of the bad guys leaving the bureau together, they aren't even all in a group anymore. Mona is imprisoned in the Bureau cells, which makes no sense if they were fleeing with her body ten minutes earlier. Neron and Tabitha aren't even there anymore as they're busy setting up 'PalmerX 2019,' a low key tech con with only one panel and one guest. Ava and Sara are back on the Waverider as if they'd never liberated the Bureau in the first place, and Nora is Die Harding her way to rescue Mona with no mention of how she got separated from them.

I'm sorry, show, but I have to ask. Did you smoke a gigantic bag of crack between these two episodes, or what?

It's all very frustrating, because I said earlier, where they take all of those plot threads is fantastic. Neron's plan to create fear using the monsters so that people will download an app in order to locate the monsters and in doing so sell their immortal souls through a lengthy terms of service agreement is both goat-shit crazy and completely brilliant. What's more, it would absolutely work. If you doubt it, just consider how much none of us noticed when the guests of PalmerX were shown agreeing to a terms of service agreement that they didn't read. Seriously, go back and look. The camera shots practically luxuriate on people swiping through the TOS as fast as they can, but nothing about that reads as unusual or sinister to us anymore and so we just blanked it out.

Similarly, Tabitha's plan to trick Nora into taking on her fairy godmother mantle was inspired, despite being lifted pretty completely from genie-lore, particularly Disney's Live Action Aladdin Soon in Theaters Near You. And God bless the show for keeping Jane Carr around as Tabitha. I absolutely expected that they'd find an excuse to recast Tabitha into the body of someone younger and sexier as soon as they possibly could, because that's the kind of gross thing that network execs tend to insist on. I love, love, love that they're keeping her around as Neron's love interest. And while we're talking about it, it's such a good choice for them to show that Neron and Tabitha do genuinely love each other. It would have been so easy to tumble into the cliché of a villain team eager to backstab one another.

But the best choice this episode made was in the nature of Gary Green himself. Wonderful reveal that Gary was perfectly aware the entire time that the fairy godmother was trying to get him to wish hurt on the Legends and so he was deliberately just focusing on wishing to hang out with them as a way of defying her. Even when 'Dark Gary' finally gets called forth, his glorious flow of vengeance never goes further than acne and tap dancing. Gary is a good man, fundamentally. And he's absolutely right, he does not deserve to be laughed at. I've been saying since the beginning of the season that the Legends need to face a consequence for the way they're played Gary as convenient bait that can be had for a little flattery. I think they finally learned that lesson here.

Which brings lastly to John Constantine, in a plotline I like to call, 'This should absolutely have been an entire episode all on its own.'

When they mentioned Hell's Triumvirate I briefly entertained the thought that they might be about to do the good parts of 'Dangerous Habits' that everybody always leaves out when they try to adapt it, but alas, no. It felt right that he chose Astra over Ray, as much as it broke my heart, and it felt equally right that Astra betrayed him. Can't wait to see what will happen there when Nora gets to Hell to rescue John. I do, however, which that they'd gone with the imagery from the comics and had Astra only have one arm.

Everybody remember where we parked:

There was actually shockingly little travel this week. The Waverider just hung around Washington D.C. in 2019, and a couple of our heroes went to Hell, which may or may not equate to the same time zone, it's hard to tell.

What is interesting is the reveal that Zari grew up a little outside of D.C. Did we know that already, or was that a reveal of convenience this week? Zari appeared to me to be in the 8-10 range, although I am a notoriously bad judge of age so she might be a bit older. That actually answers a couple of longstanding questions I was pondering last year about what baby Zari might be up to in our time period.

Zari mentions that it's only a few years away from when ARGUS takes over everything and creates an anti-Meta, anti-Muslim Dystopia. We're all kind of assuming they're just never going to deal with that, aren't we?

Quotes:

Sara: "Mick, Nate, do you think you can handle Tabitha?" Mick: "Granny’s dead."

Sara: "OK, can you guys stop being dragon baby crazy right now?"

Gary: "And now I have three nipples, because a spare never hurts." Having a third nipple was historically a sign of witchcraft. There is a zero percent chance the writers don't know that.

Calibraxis: "You’re dead, demon hunter!" Constantine: "I was gonna be a demon proctologist, but the pay wasn’t as good."

Calibraxis: "I’m a demon, not a pirate, John."

Zari: "It’s a demon app. I’m gonna read the fine print."

Charlie: "If I die, I’m gonna come back and haunt you." Zari: "I would love a ghost friend."

Nora: "Gary, you dick!"

Bits and Pieces:

-- This season has for some reason brought up a lot of embarrassing confessions from me. Adding to the list that already contains my love of semiotics and the assembly of flatpack furniture, this week I have to tell you how much I love logo design. Honestly. I bring this up because the PalmerX logo is a masterwork. The solid 3-D cube implied by the background framing device conveys an unspoken implication of solidity and dependability with the third implied square breaking the frame and shooting 'toward' the viewer implying a daring willingness to work outside conventional rules and by implication 'think outside the box.' The coloring, meanwhile, subtly underscores the 'Palmer' portion of the name, thus reinforcing the higher brand. Honestly, and with no ironic joking involved, the PalmerX logo is a f*cking masterpiece of work.

-- I actually have a startling number of opinions on the quality of logo design. Feel free to ask, but I warn you that the answers get lengthy.

-- I get that they were underscoring the connection between Tala Ashe and Zari's younger self, but that hairstyle just fundamentally did not work for her. That's actually kind of rare and notable for her. Just about every hairstyle they've ever given her has looked gorgeous.

-- Looks like Wixtable the dragon is hatching in time for the season finale.

-- I went back and forth on whether or not it was smart or stupid for Zari to have brought the egg with her on the mission. Ultimately, I think there was no guaranteed safe place for the egg, given how often messed up stuff happens on the Waverider when they aren't there.

-- I hope Nate is understanding about Zari leaving the egg behind.

-- So many questions about why Nate has a 'Kid Steel' costume hanging around. And why Gary picked it.

-- This week's fabulous dress watch. Jane Carr looked stunning in that evil black number she adopted once she'd ditched her godmother duties. Also, the designer of that asymmetrical sheath number that Nora wore to PalmerX is underpaid. Regardless of how much he or she is paid, they are underpaid. That dress was amazing. Please, please, Courtney Ford, tell me that you stole that dress and have it in your personal collection. Also, call me. We'll brunch.

-- They're really getting their money out of the Stein puppet. Bless.

-- Hell's triumvirate included Satan, not Lucifer. Which means a crossover with Lucifer is still possible. Fun fact, in the comics the triumvirate in Hell stepped in to rule when Lucifer left to go open up his nightclub in LA. Which means it all totally works together if they can get Tom Ellis to make a stop in the Waverider. And then possibly he and Matt Ryan could share a torrid embrace and... I'm sorry, what were we talking about again?

-- That's like the third episode in a row where they've mentioned Damien Darhk. Dare we hope to see him again next season?

If you squint at it and assume that we missed an episode of plot development, this would easily be a four. Sadly, we can't, and so I can't in good conscience give it more than three out of four fantastic logos.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

[jennaschererwrites]

How 'The Good Place' Turned Into TV's Smartest, Funniest Sitcom - Rolling Stone

Let's be honest: By all accounts, The Good Place shouldn't work.

It's a primetime network comedy – NBC, former home of Outsourced and Sean Saves the World – that breaks every primetime network comedy commandment, having spent its sophomore season blowing up its own premise every Thursday night. Other than Ted Danson and Kristen Bell, the show features an ensemble of mostly unknowns. It refuses to shy away from thorny ethical questions, regularly quoting the sort of moral philosophers that usually get namechecked in university lectures and symposiums. (You should actually have the option of getting college credit just for watching it.) Oh, and sometimes there’s a unicorn. Like, literally a unicorn.

But Jesus, Mary and Kierkegaard, does this show work magnificently – less like a well-oiled machine than like a marvelous Rube Goldberg device, astonishing and delighting dedicated viewers with a “How the hell do they keep pulling this off?” spirit of inventiveness. Created by Michael Schur (Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Office), The Good Place – whose second season finale aired last night – has established itself as one of the single best shows on TV today: slyly intelligent, relentlessly creative, existentially profound and consistently laugh-out-loud funny.

The sitcom began its first season with a cozy (if more metaphysical than most) set-up: Eleanor Shellstrop (Bell) finds herself in a cheery waiting room only to discover that A) she’s dead, B) she’s in "the Good Place," which is basically Heaven sans the religious associations, and C) they've got the wrong gal. In life, Eleanor wasn't what you'd call the charitable, love-your-neighbor type, especially not the kind that her immortal overseer, Michael (Ted Danson), seems to think she is. She was actually, well, kind of a dick. It seems that, thanks to a bureaucratic mix-up, she's taken the place of another, far more generous person named Eleanor Shellstrop. Having found herself in a pastel-colored, preppily cheerful afterlife where everyone around her is unbelievably upstanding and no one can ever swear ("Ashhole!"), this afterlifer must find a way to con the world into believing that she's the saint they imagine her to be. Otherwise, it's off to the Bad Place and your run-of-the-mill eternity of torment.

A less daring showrunner might have spent years teasing out this premise, with Eleanor's heavenly assigned soulmate, moral philosophy professor Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper), schooling her in basic ethical principles. Then she tries to put them into imperfect practice, there are lots of shenanigans and screw-ups, yadda yadda yadda. But by the end of the first season, Schur and company instead served up the most delicious twist since Ned Stark lost his head on the steps of Baelor: The Good Place was the Bad Place all along! Our heroine comes to the realization that Michael is actually a demon who has set up the show's central quartet – Eleanor, hand-wringing Chidi, jealous socialite Tahani (Jameela Jamil) and dim-witted would-be DJ Jason (Manny Jacinto) – to torture each other by being thrown into situations that ping their deepest anxieties. To quote Eleanor, “Holy motherforking shirtballs!”

And with that grenade hurled into the very heart of its premise, The Good Place went from sweet and intriguing sitcom to one of the most clever and brilliant experiments in modern television. Season Two has been a high-wire walk into a sea of fog, with each episode's conclusion prompting the question: Where the hell do we go from here? It's a joy to watch the series pull off the trick every week, outdoing itself with each subsequent foray into the possibilities of its ever-expanding world. In "Dance Dance Resolution," the season's third episode, Michael reboots his tormentee's memories hundreds of times in a dizzying montage in which Eleanor realizes over and over again where they actually are. (And surely there's no tidier visual metaphor for life in modern America than Bell holding a bunch of balloons while standing in a field of cacti, shouting, "This is the Bad Place!")

In the course of the season, Michael eventually abandons his repeatedly failed gambit and joins forces with the humans to con the rest of the disguised demons in the neighborhood into believing that he's actually pulling it off. Halfway through the season, The Good Place has quite literally dismantled its own setting: The lovingly realized neighborhood where the show has taken place up until now folds in on itself and winks out of existence as our antiheroes head off to parts unknown. Think Nancy Botwin burning down Agrestic in Season Three of Weeds, but on a far, far bigger existential scale.

While the circumstances of the show change from week to week, our anchor is the ways in which Schur and his team track not only the characters' individual growth, but also the ways in which they grow together. The Good Place is blessed with one of the most comedically talented ensembles in television, from seasoned pros Danson and Bell to Jamil, who made her acting debut in this show. But Schur's true secret weapon is arguably Upright Citizens Brigade alum D'Arcy Carden in the role of an all-knowing celestial A.I. named Janet. This "Busty Alexa," as one person dubs her, gets some of the best one-liners in a show packed with them, and perfectly encompasses the comedy's delicate blend of bright, jokey innocence and deep, brainy pathos.

And what viewers might hardly even clock as they take in the clever setups, abundance of background puns (a partial list of the afterlife's restaurant choices: Sushi and the Banshees, From Schmear to Eternity, Panna Cotta da Vida, I Tought I Saw a Puddin' Vat) and sitcom hijinks is that the show is also taking on the most profound questions of human existence: Is morality fixed or relative? What does it mean to be good – and is true goodness even sustainable in a world that often rewards selfishness and avarice? And, as Michael asks Eleanor rhetorically in the Season Two finale, "What do we owe each other?" Going into its third season, the series has once again reshuffled all its cards: Eleanor, Chidi, Jason and Tahani are back on earth, having sidestepped their deaths in an effort (overseen by Michael) to see if they can live up to the potential they discovered in the afterlife.

The show has such a light touch that it’s easy to forget how heavy it is. It's proof positive that, despite TV's tendency to neatly separate thoughtful dramas and airy comedies, slapstick and banter can coexist alongside tragedy and hardship – that a show doesn't need to be self-serious to be serious-minded. Demons can learn humanity and death isn't the end of growing. No other series on the air right now that can drop such highbrow references then go from zero-to-Zucker-brothers with its visual gags so gracefully, or consistently crack you up while raising your I.Q. several points. It's both perversely, hilariously fantastic and deft at keeping the pathos of its interpersonal drama grounded, often at the same time. (See: The status-obsessed Tahani running past a gauntlet of rooms in which celebrities are discussing her ... then stopping to confront her perpetually disapproving parents.) It's only two seasons in, but fork it: The Good Place already feels close to being a masterpiece. We hope it runs for eternity.

[runesrule]

More than just your plot device

If there were a line between antagonist and love interest, it would probably intersect with the Other Woman. This character is the wedge driven between the couple, the driving force behind a new plot progression. Her involvement seems to always end in either her death or a catfight.

(First of all, I hate it when the term ‘cat-fight’ is used patronisingly. Have you ever seen cats fight?? Be afraid. Be very afraid, for there will be blood in the gutters and fur in the air)

All writers rely on tropes, but seeing as how this isn’t the fifties anymore, I vote that the ‘Heroine V Other Woman catfight’ gets left in the last century. There’s two reasons why: Firstly, to quote the masterpiece ‘Mean Girls’; “If you (girls) keep calling each other sluts and bitches, it makes it okay for guys to call you sluts and bitches.” Secondly, there are no winners from that fight. Either the Heroine has lowered herself to the level of scrapping it out over some guy, or the Other Woman, now mauled, humiliated and loveless, becomes an Evil Bitch in order to gain herself a bit of pride back. Mostly though, the Other Woman is simply forgotten, shunted to the wayside in an effort to repair the bonds of true love between the saga’s couple.

Even if her character has more to offer the story, even if she is has interesting potential as her own person, she must eventually bow to the more demanding narrative of the Hero and his Heroine.

Asha Barlow of James Cameron’s ‘Dark Angel’ is a one such example of lost potential that I will forever mourn. (If you haven’t seen ‘Dark Angel’, there’s a fairly a good summary, here.) While rebelling against the dire circumstances of her post-Electromagnetic-Pulse police state world, Asha falls in love with the heroine Max’s True Love, Logan Cale. Now, at the time, Logan thinks Max is dead, and when she does return from imprisonment, she’s been injected with a virus targeted to Logan’s gene sequence, so if they touch, he dies…

As you can imagine, this puts the kybosh on the romance, and Asha steps up to be there for Logan while he’s caught up in the whirl-wind of If I so much as shake the hand of the woman I love, I’ll die a long, slow, painful death.

To begin with, Max doesn’t exactly step aside and give Logan her blessing to run away with Asha.  Since Max’s return means Logan nearly dies, Asha’s not exactly Max’s biggest fan either. As Season Two’s plot progresses, Max helps Asha out on a number of occasions, like breaking her out of jail and hiding evidence that would incriminate her in the S1W’s outlaw activities.

She’s unceremoniously written out of the narrative because her actress moves on. On one hand, it sucks because there was a whole lot of potential for Asha in the Terminal City story-line. On the other hand, by the time Asha flees over the border to Canada, Max has told Logan she’s with somebody else. Since Asha had managed to side-step the love interest category, I would have hated to have seen her shoved back into it. It seems to be an easy thing for people to do, despite the fact that the first time we see Asha she jumps on a table and fires a round from a big-ass handgun into the ceiling of a corrupt Veteran’s Affairs office, she gets shunted to the side as a nothing more than a complication in Max and Logan’s love affair.

Asha Barlow is not here to be your goddamn plot device: She’s a sweetheart with a spine of iron, a freedom fighter who probably rescues stray kittens and is basically too genuinely lovely for half the hard-asses she has to deal with.

Asha’s character disappearing from the narrative obviously has more to do with outside forces than the convenience of advancing Max and Logan’s storyline, but that convenience cannot be ignored. After all, once Asha disappears, Max finally admits she was never with Alec, becomes friends with Logan again and he helps her to try and decipher the mysterious message coded in her DNA. The series ends on a cliffhanger, but it’s pretty obvious from the double-surgical-gloved hand-holding at the end of the episode that they’re back on track.

I have mixed feelings about the cancellation of ‘Dark Angel’ as it heralded the beginning of ‘Firefly’ which infamously ran for a single season before it’s own untimely demise. Mostly, those feelings can be neatly summarised as; what the fuck, Fox?

(Notice that I’m not giving a link for a synopsis of ‘Firefly’. That’s coz you have to go watch it.) 

‘Firefly’ had a couple of Other Women intrude on the central romance between Inara Serra and Captain Malcolm Reynolds. The narrative deals with both of those women—one an antagonist and one a heroine—differently and interestingly.

Femme fatales are always great fun, especially one as intricate and multifaceted as Yo-Saff-Bridg. When we first meet her, she pretends to be a gullible, sweet, innocent virgin who ‘marries’ a drunken Mal in order to take over his ship and steal it. As it turns out ‘Saffron’ (AKA Yolanda, AKA Bridget,) is a serial bride, conwoman and liar. We never really get her back story, which I think is great because I can pretend that they wouldn’t have written her some terrible tragedy to explain why she likes sex and money, isn’t afraid of breaking the rules and enjoys allowing people to underestimate her because she’s a woman, then taking them for all they’re worth.

She is a catalyst in a way for Inara at least admitting her true feelings for Mal. When she drugs Mal unconscious with a kiss delivered sedative, she runs into Inara on route to the control room to take over the ship. They engage in some truly graceful fisticuffs and Saffron runs off while Inara rushes to check on Mal. Upon finding him unconscious but alive on the floor of his bedroom, she delivers a relieved kiss to his mouth…thereby giving herself a dose of the sedative.

She doggedly lies to the rest of the crew that she ‘hit her head’ and at the end of the episode Mal seems to be under the impression that it was Saffron’s kiss that knocked her out, not his own.

(I have a theory that Mal knew she kissed him the moment he saw her face when he begins to confront her, but that the fear and acceptance in her eyes made him back off.)

The last time we see Yo-Saff-Bridg, she is being locked into a trash disposal by Inara, who is rightfully smug in her victory. The point is, despite drugging Mal, knocking Wash out, leaving Mal naked in a desert and attempting to steal the beloved Serenity, Saffron lives to run another con.

Saffron is a debatably good example of how a love interest can introduce drama to a love triangle while still maintaining her own character arc outside of her attachment to the hero. Debatable because her time as a legitimate love interest is outweighed by her time as an antagonist.

Unlike the second woman to enter the secondary love interest spot in the Inara/Mal relationship-that-never-was. If there was ever a heart-breaking example of the Other Woman’s untimely demise to push the relationship forward, it’s Nandi. Here we meet a strong, beautiful, sensual woman who is alike and yet completely opposite of Inara. When Inara catches Mal exiting Nandi’s room, still pulling his shirt over his shoulders, she plays it cool and cutting, while Mal’s clenched jaw at her dismissiveness give away his own inner turmoil. In the next scene, we see Inara sobbing on the floor, heartbroken.

Nandi, upon realising that Mal’s feelings for Inara are not unrequited, is herself heartbroken that she would do such a thing to her dearest friend.

And then? Then she dies.

In the bitter aftermath of her murder by a small-town psychopath and sexual predator, Mal finally confronts Inara and admits his true feelings.

Of course, Inara flees in the face of it, likely equally as rattled by Nandi’s violent death as she is terrified of the prospect of choosing between the job she loves and the man she has fallen in love with. That’s not the point; it’s the fact that Nandi had to die to force Mal to face his feelings, and that Damsel Dies for Manpain bullshit is old as fuck.

However, her death is not nearly as tragic as those of any number of women killed off to advance the narrative of the hero and/or heroine. Nandi is her own woman, from her dark eyes to her beautiful mother-of-pearl pistols. Many characters don’t get that consideration. A character being introduced for the sole purpose of romantic narrative should have their own arc, something that makes them more than the single dimension of adding drama to a romance. Furthermore, we must learn to defend the Other Woman, even if we don’t agree with her actions, even if we otherwise despise her character. As women, we must protect women.

PS: if your boyfriend cheats, girl, take out his kneecaps and the side-chick out for coffee.

[flickdirect]

Hailing from the mind of Stephen King, Castle Rock is a town used in most of his novels, and now with the resurgence of Stephen King films, Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason took the opportunity - with the blessing of the master of horror himself- Stephen King, to create an Anthology Series entitled Castle Rock, with a cast of actors from some of his other films. The show follows the lives and stories of residents in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. The series premiered on Hulu on July 25, 2018, and has been a success since. Crafting an original story it uses some characters as well as lore from his other works. Now, you can purchase the first season on 4K, available January 8.

Henry Matthew Deaver (Andre Holland, Moonlight), an attorney, receives an anonymous call about an imprisoned man who is locked in a cage below the Shawshank State Penitentiary. "The Kid" (Bill Skarsgård, It), as the young man is named, seems to know Henry so the attorney sets out to find out who he his and why he was hidden underneath an abandoned cell block of the prison. Not only does Henry have to deal with this mystery, but his adoptive mother, Ruth (Sissy Spacek; Carrie), is suffering from dementia. We see Henry reluctantly decide to stay on in Castle Rock for the time being to sort all of this out.

The cast also includes Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men) as Molly Strand, Jane Levy (Suburgatory) as Jackie Torrance and Terry O'Quinn (Lost) as Dale Lacey, the Shawshank State Penitentiary Warden. The cast certainly helps craft and create the show into the masterpiece that it was. Spacek, Holland, Skarsgård, and Lynskey give performances that most certainly should win Emmy Awards. This is not a show that is one dimensional, but as true with most Stephen King works, relies heavily on the characters and in turn, Stephen King's movies and television show primarily rely on the actors portraying them. In this case, the cast did this to perfection.

What makes Stephen King's novels and most of his films unique are the fact that the stories focus on character development, and it is through this development we learn about their fears as well as the monsters "that go bump in the night". Creators Shaw and Thomason tried to follow his formula as close to the letter as possible while throwing some nods to the style of executive producer JJ Abrams. This made for a tale that at times was a bogged down with exposition compared to most television out there. However, the pay off by the end of season one made it all worth it although it left us with a huge cliffhanger.

Presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio, Castle Rock has never looked more pristine than on this 4K release. Black are deep, colors, while muted, are vibrant at times, and the depth and clarity of the picture is hard to surpass. The English 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack presents crisp dialog that can clearly be heard on the center channel while the special effects make great use of the surround speakers. The only thing that would probably improve this presentation if they were able to add height audio through Dolby Atmos.

The 4K Castle Rock Season 1 set includes a UV copy of the show presented in only 1080p as well as a Blu-ray copy of the series. Each disc of the series contains bonus features that give you an in-depth look into each episode along with two featurettes saved for Disc 2 of the 4k and Blu-ray sets respectively, called Blood on the Page, and A Clockwork of Horror: Merging the styles of Stephen King & J.J. Abrams.

While the end of Season 1 of Castle Rock leaves us with more questions than we had at the beginning of the show it is a solid attempt to create a "Kingverse". It will be interesting to see if they stay in Castle Rock in season two to fully conclude the first season or jump over to the Overlook hotel as the final scene in Season 1 suggested. Either way, this was a solid first season and if you are a fan of King, amazing 4k transfers, or just good television this is one you should pick up. Grade: B+

About Nathan M Rose Nathan Rose is chief executive officer and is in charge of overseeing day-to-day operations. In addition to overseeing operations of FlickDirect, Nathan has also appeared in various online productions and films.

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